Witnessing Tips

Ten DOs:

1. Do know what the Bible teaches. Being well grounded in the faith is essential.
2. Do respect Muslims as people for whom Jesus died. The Bible says that "God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them" (2 Corinthians 5:19).
3. Do show sincere respect and friendship to Muslims.
4. Do listen to their real needs. Ask questions.
5. Do focus the conversation on Jesus Christ after you establish a relationship of trust and friendship. Use the Word of God.
6. Do give literature about Jesus and the Bible.
7. Do invite a Muslim friend to a function at church in order to develop friendships with other Christians. When appropriate, offer to take your Muslim friend to a church service.
8. Do become well informed about Islam. Books about missionaries to Muslims or Muslim converts to Christ are especially inspiring.
9. Do be available. We may not appreciate what a tremendous step it is for Muslims to convert. Even in North America, they face ostracism from their families, and, especially in the case of Muslims from the Middle East, they live with the fear of physical reprisal and even death.
10. Do pray that the Muslim heart may be softened for the gospel. "Whatever good may be done is done and brought about by prayer, which is the omnipotent empress," wrote Luther. "In human affairs we accomplish everything through prayer" (What Luther Says 2:3497).

Ten DON'Ts:

1. Don't treat the Qur'an disrespectfully. It is one thing to disagree with the teachings of Islam, another to ridicule them.
2. Don't treat the Bible disrespectfully by placing it on the floor, for example. Above all, don't undermine the Bible by ungodly living. Remember that being a Christian means living by the Word as well as talking about it.
3. Don't get into a battle of the books, - the Qur'an versus the Bible. Let the Bible speak for itself. The straightforward assertions of the Bible are powerful, and through them the Holy Spirit works.
4. Don't make assumptions about what the Muslim believes. Ask him or her.
5. Don't attack the name Allah as a false god. This is a touchy issue, since many Arabic-speaking Christians inaccurately use the name Allah to refer to the God of the Bible. It would only incite anger to point out at the start that some scholars believe the name Allah is related to the pagan moon god of pre-Islamic Arabia.
6. Don't attack Islam, Muhammad, or the Qur'an. Light candles instead of cursing the darkness. Depending on their relationship to Islam, some Muslims may themselves be critical of the faith and ready to hear the other side.
7. Don't be insulting. It would be foolish, for example, to invite a practicing Muslim over for a pork dinner and wine, since Islam forbids these foods.
8. Don't witness alone to a person of the opposite sex.
9. Don't give up. St. Augustine's mother prayed and witnessed for over a dozen years before her son became a Christian, and he became one of the great theologians of all time.
10. Don't be afraid. It can be intimidating to share our faith, both for us and the other person(s) involved. But Paul writes, "...God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline" (2 Timothy 1:7).